SEO Is Not Dead

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the art of creating a greater visibility for websites in search engines. SEO is about helping to make websites successful by generating relevant traffic from search engines.

SEO has been proclaimed deceased many times over the years, but each and every time SEO has proven to be very much alive and more thriving than ever.

SEO is not a static discipline - it continually changes and adapts. Whenever Google updates its functionality, whenever Bing releases a new enhancement, SEOs around the world learn all they can about it and modify their strategies accordingly.

Search Engine Facts

According to the Internet World Stats there are now over 3 billion people online. Internet Live Stats reports that Google now handles more than 1.2 trillion searches a year - and is still growing. This translates to more than 40,000 searches every second.

When it comes to marketing budgets, SEO continues to grow. In 2015 38% of marketing budgets are planned to grow their SEO spend. This follows on from a planned 41% spending growth in 2014. So marketing managers are still investing heavily in SEO and are in fact continuing to increase their budgets, as they have for every year since the beginning of SEO.

Additionally, both the 2013 SEMPO State of Search Marketing survey and the 2014 Moz Industry Survey show continued and significant growth of the SEO industry, with more new businesses investing in SEO and the overall SEO spend per business also increasing.

On top of all that, in November 2014 a poll by Edelman found that online search is the most-trusted media source, surpassing traditional media and all other channels. Most users rely on online search for reliable news and information, and it is also the first channel people turn to for business information.

What do the experts say?

Those who predict the end of SEO are invariably ill-informed about what SEO really is and what it does. So let's hear it from the experts then, those people actually doing SEO and reporting on the search engine industry. Do they think SEO is dead? Hell no:

"I don't think SEO is dying. I do think SEO has changed and will continue to change as search itself changes."- Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land.

"SEO is clearly alive and well and as long as peeps use search engines to find things it shall live on."- David Harry, founder of the SEO Training Dojo.

"SEO is not dead, it's alive and kicking. SEO is moving from being a kid into puberty into becoming an adult: it changes with the world around it."- Bas van den Beld, founder and editor of State of Digital.

"As long as there are Search Engines SEO will be alive and well because we are the keepers of visibility. The more complicated indexing becomes the more SEO's are required."- Terry Van Horne, founder of SEOPros.com.

What do the search engines say?

If you don't just want to believe the SEO experts, what about the people actually working at major search engines?

Both Google and Bing offer SEO advice to webmasters, Google via their SEO Starters Guide, and Bing via their Webmaster Blog. Not only that, senior employees at both search engines speak out regularly about SEO:

Matt Cutts, the head of Google's webspam team, did a video in February 2009 explaining why he believes SEO will continue to exist:

Matt also wrote a thoughtful blog post about Google Instant in which he states: "that doesn’t mean that SEO will die. I’ve said it before, but SEO is in many ways about change. The best SEOs recognize, adapt, and even flourish when changes happen."

And here's an interview with Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of Search at the time, talking about Google Instant. At the 1:45 mark she explains that Google Instant represents a 'smaller change' for SEO:

And finally some words from Rajesh Srivastava, Principal Group Program Manager at Bing, talking about SEO when Bing was first launched: "All of the legitimate, time-tested, SEO skills and knowledge that webmasters have invested in previously apply fully today with Bing. Moreover, investments in solid, reputable SEO work made for Bing will bring similar improvements in your website’s page rank in other search engines as well."

It's alive! Alive!

It should be blatantly obvious by now that anyone who says that SEO is dead is clearly ill-informed and/or just wants to get some attention. The next time you hear someone proclaiming the demise of SEO, send them to this site. And for goodness sake, don't believe a word they say.